Scarcity, post-scarcity and community after the Italian earthquake
Our good friend and past ISE intensive participant Federico Venturini writes from the University of Leeds in England, where he’s finishing his dissertation on revolutionary social movements in Rio de Janeiro. You can follow Fede’s blog at http://rioprarua.noblogs.org; which also features some photos from the recent Ecological Challenges conference in Oslo: I am very pleased to […]
New Murray Bookchin collection in French
From our colleague Vincent Gerber in Geneva: October 16th will be the publication date for our book “Murray Bookchin, une écologie sociale et radicale,” in the series titled Precursors of Degrowth, produced by Serge Latouche. For more information, see my posting here. This project comes up after the publication of my earlier book on Bookchin […]
2 items on social movements and power
ROAR Magazine has posted two thought provoking articles on social movements and the contest for political power: an interview with John Holloway on movements and the state, and a reflection from Greece on the current and potential role of the leftist Syriza alliance. From the latter story: The effects of such a [left] electoral victory […]
Call to support Kurds under attack in Syria
Urgent Call International People’s coalition against ISIS – for Kobanê – and for humanity! On the 15 September 2014 the ISIS launched a major multi-front military campaign against the Kurdish region of Kobanê (Arabic: Ayn Al-Arab) in Rojava/Northern Syria. This is the third ISIS onslaught on Kobanê since March 2014. As the ISIS was unsuccessful […]
Scarcity and Post-scarcity in SciFi
ISE Board member Blair Taylor draws our attention to an amusing illustrated review of images of post-scarcity in science fiction, and the ways in which the narrative seems invariably pulled along by the introduction of a uniquely scarce essential need. Might this say more about the limits of our imagination than any inherent tendency toward […]
Brian Tokar: Defying Apocalypse
This commentary appears on the occasion of the forthcoming “Apocalypse Now?” issue of the Occupied Times of London, as well as the People’s Climate March in New York City and events before and after, and also the publication of the newly revised and expanded edition of my book, Toward Climate Justice. It also appears on […]
More links on Kurdish communalism
I originally added a series of updated links as a comment to our earlier post on this topic, but there are now enough of them to easily justify a new post: • Surprising coverage of this story on (commercial) British TV this week: www.channel4.com/news/pkk-kurdistan-workers-party-islamic-state-kurdish-spring! • Also a current on-the-scene report: rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/village-communes-emerging-in-colemerg. • An earlier account, […]
The organic imperative held hostage
This commentary by ISE faculty and board member Grace Gershuny originally appeared on her author’s blog for Chelsea Green Publishers: “We no longer have the luxury of prevention. Now we are in the dire situation of needing a cure, a reversal. We know that correcting agriculture is an answer to climate chaos, and that it […]
On confederalism in North Kurdistan
Revolutionaries in the northern Kurdish region, now part of Turkey, have by several accounts taken up social ecology’s call for a confederation of directly-democratic assemblies. Their project and its accomplishments are described in a recent book from the New Compass Press, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, containing Janet Biehl‘s English translation of a recent account […]
New books from Dan Chodorkoff & Brian Tokar
From New Compass Press in Norway, a new collection of Dan Chodorkoff’s essays, The Anthropology of Utopia, plus a revised and expanded edition of Brian Tokar’s Toward Climate Justice. Both available in September; review copies now available from New Compass: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF UTOPIA Essays on Social Ecology and Community Development By Dan Chodorkoff How […]
